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I just don't understand

1K views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  Holly 
#1 ·
Ok i understand how cycling works, ammonia spike, then nitrite spike followed by a drop in ammonia, then finally nitrate spike followed by a drop in nitrite.

my tank has been cycling for 6 weeks now, ammonia has been at 0 for about 2 weeks nitrite dropped from +5 to 2ppm 1 week ago. For the last week its been at .50ppm and my nitrate in that same 2 week perieod hhas gone from 5ppm to 20ppm.

So basicly at the end of week 5 nitrite dropped from 2ppm to .50ppm and nitrate wen from 5ppm to 10ppm. Now at the end of week 6 nitrite is still at .50ppm but nitrate is at 20ppm, how is it possible to have the nitrates keep climbing but the nitrite to stay the same if it can drop from 2ppm to .5ppm in one week shouldn't the next week make it drop to 0.

I hope its gone by end of week 7. I have a 55 gallon tank, with a 50 gallon wet/dry, the wet/dry has 5 gallons of biomedia and 27 gallons of water. Turn over rate is 350 GPH I like it slower to make sure the water spends more time in in the biomedia and filters better.
 
#2 ·
Besides what you already stated, there's no rhyme or reason when it comes to cycling. Your doing good so far. My 55g took 12 weeks to completely cycle I had no choice but to do it with fish. What's in the tank now?
 
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